Thursday, August 31, 2006

Night Three of FX

Last night was great! We had a little snag with the water coffin, but everything else went smoothly. We also had to change around the ministry time. It went much better than I expected. The counselors ran out of contact cards! We had about 290 first time decisions to follow Jesus in Palm Coast, FL. God is so amazing!!!

The storm ended up being a joke here. It barely even rained. Whenever I talked to one of the workers of FX, I told her how we were all praying that it would just dissipate. She said that she had heard that word used a lot around there. Apparently, we were all praying that the storm would "dissipate." The Lord answered all of our prayers because when it got here, it was dissipated!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Night Two of FX

Last night was incredible! It was wild but a good kind of wild. First of all, we performed one illusion that we call the shower curtain. The reason we named it that is because we pull a curtain all the way around the prop. Last night, the curtain got stuck and it wouldn't go all the way around. It only went a short way. Here I was onstage not knowing how to make this trick happen. Brock was already locked up in the contraption so he was helpless. Stephy came running up asking what I needed to make it work. Brock talked to the crowd and joked with them until Stephy and I found a screw driver. I took the screw driver and popped out the metal that was protruding inside the track preventing the curtain from moving. I was able to fix it easily. I gave a little almost bow to the crowd with the screw driver still in my hand. They laughed and we continued the trick.

The bullet catch was the best one we've done. When Brock hit the ground after the gun was fired, people ran up to the stage. We wondered why they did that until my friend, Kim, who was in the audience said that people ran up to the stage yelling, "He's dead!" Then, someone said, "That boy is getting up!" The audience roared with applause and screams. It was great!

Pray that they don't shut us down tonight. The storm is much less than we thought it would be. However, it is coming our way and the county south of us closed their schools today. The school we are at didn't close, but they cancelled all extra curricular activities. We are hoping that they are not considering us as an extra curricular activity!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Night One of FX

Last night was great! There was a good crowd and many, many people gave their lives to Jesus. The show went exceptionally smoothly.

At one point in the night, Brock and I looked out from backstage and watched as the crowd standing right in front of the stage were lifting their skateboards and swaying them to the music of the band. I told Brock, "This is FX."

We have some new members on our team. Eleventy Seven and Group One Crew are with us. They are both excellant bands and really nice people. Chaos on Wheels and Tim Byrne are back with us. Everyone is doing a fabulous job at grabbing the audience's attention and doing their role in FX. It's so cool to see how everyone who has such different talents can work so well together and use their gifts for the Lord.

I must admit that it took me a little while to change gears after a summer of youth camps. FX is definately not your church crowd. That's good, but it's definately a change from the audiences we've had for the last few months.

Night one was a success!!!

Monday, August 28, 2006

Ernesto

Pray that Ernesto does not come thru Palm Coast. I don't want to say pray that it goes another way because that's like praying that your team wins the ball game. The other team is praying for the same thing. Everyone is praying that the storm doesn't come their way. I guess we could pray that it dissipates to almost nothing? Just pray that FX is still on the whole time and we have good crowds.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

So It Begins

Yesterday morning, I went to blog and our laptop would not turn on. We use our laptop in every show to play music, etc. Therefore, I was a little concerned about what we would do if it went out. Brock had to go to the computer store before we left and get it worked on. Fortunately, it was only a new battery that we needed. We've had this computer for two years and have put it thru some abuse. We take it everywhere...in arenas, outside venues, other countries. We bought this one to replace the one that was stolen from backstage at a show a couple of years ago.

Then, one of the girls from our office woke up yesterday morning and her phone wasn't working. This is the girl who is having all of the office calls forwarded to her cell phone so that she can answer while at the FX. This phone just quit on her yesterday. It's working now though.

Our lights on our trailer went out and we need a new battery on the truck. Also, our air conditioner in the truck did not work very well yesterday. We just took the truck into the shop to have some other stuff fixed. Now, we have an even longer list of things to do.

We usually get attacked at FX in themes. I think this one is things breaking. It began at our last show when the airport security broke some of our magic while checking our luggage. We spent all week repairing that stuff and buying new stuff. I thought we were ready only to find more things are breaking. Pray that this ends now. Pray for us, our office, the bands, the skater, the bmx team, and all of our stuff that we use to make this happen. Pray that this FX is powerful and effective. Pray for the Lord to place His hand on this and never pull it away.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Welcome to the War Zone

My dad received some literature entitled "Welcome to the War Zone" on how to pray when he was in Romania earlier this year. The information is very good. I think it could be applied to the Freedom Experience. We see so much spiritual warfare at these events. Whenever we do an FX in a school gym, the spiritual warfare is so much more intense. The sad truth is that Satan reigns in our public high schools. The only way to combat spiritual warfare is through prayer. You can help us in that aspect. We begin an FX in Palm Coast, FL on Monday. Please begin praying with us. Here is some of the insight I received from the literature:

The primary purpose in praying for the lost is not to convince God to save them. He is "not willing that any should perish." (I Peter 3:9). However, it is to do spiritual warfare-freeing them of demonic influence so they can be saved.

These are the weapons that we can use:
1. The blood of Christ---Revelation 12:11, Hebrews 2:14, I John 2:2
2. The Name of Jesus---Luke 10:17
3. The Word of God---Ephesians 6:17
4. Praise---2 Chronicles 20
5. Fasting---Isiah 58:6
6. Love---I Corinthians 13:7-8

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Inventions

If I were going to invent something, I'd invent larger ketchup packets. You have to use 36 packets just to get enough for your burger or whatever. I don't think it would hurt anyone financially to make larger ketchup packets. It might even make it less expensive. I'm guessing that the packaging is the most money. Therefore, if you made larger packets, people would use less of them and less packaging. What would you invent if you could invent anything?

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Bowling

We went bowling last night. We had so much fun!!! First of all, I've never been very good at bowling and never made over 100 in score before. Last night, I broke 100!

We didn't just do your normal bowling all of the time though. We played follow the leader bowling. One person would do some sort of crazy move as they bowled and everyone had to do the same crazy stunt. Brock rolled his ball into another lane once. He also grabbed the ball out of two of the girls' hands just as they were about to let it fly down the lane. We played dizzy lizzy bowling. You can only imagine how that went. It was crazy! We videod some of it.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

A Lady in the Airport

Saturday, we hurriedly went to grab lunch in the airport before our plane took off. When we sat down, I noticed a woman probably in her late 50's sitting alone a couple of tables away. Immediately, I just knew that she was hurting and I needed to pray for her. As I began praying for her, I knew that she was having trouble with love...not between a woman and child or between friends but between a man and a woman.

About 5 minutes later, she began to cry. Brock who was oblivious to the whole thing was teasing with the waitress about how the restaurant makes their crabcakes. The waitress had said that the main ingredient was love. Brock said, "You can't buy true love at the store." At that moment, the lady jerked her head toward our table. That statement got her attention. This all confirmed my thoughts about the lady.

My heart went out to her and I prayed so intently. After we left, I told Brock about my experience. He said that when that sort of thing happens, I need to go and tell her. For some reason, I thought that information given from the Lord like that was just to help me be able to pray better. Brock said that it would mean so much more to her if she knew that the Lord had told me things about her and that I was praying for her.

Then I knew that I had missed out on an opportunity. Please pray for this lady with me. All I know is that there is a very lonely woman who passed through the Charlotte airport Saturday morning. Pray with me that she will find the truest love that surpasses all human loves. Pray that she feels the glorious love from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Monday, August 21, 2006

No Sleep

A lack of sleep can throw off your whole day. This weekend, I only got five hours of sleep a night on average because of our flight schedule. Yesterday morning, when I woke up so early, my sinuses were very bad. I figured it was just because I didn't get enough sleep and my immune system was down. However, it got worse and worse. It was so bad that I couldn't even go into the worship service. I was sniffing and sneezing too much. We all went out to lunch as planned, but then, Brock took me home. I was feeling sick!

I slept until 10am this morning (that's really late for me). Guess what? I feel fine. What I was beginning to think was a cold was actually just a sinus problem spurred on by a lack of sleep! I cannot believe how much sleep affects me. I'm so glad that I'm feeling better. Too bad I missed our happy fun day. Oh well! There will be others.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Late to Bed but Early to Rise

I'm up too early this morning. I guess it's habit because we've risen early the last two mornings to catch flights. However, I have a big day ahead of me. I wish that I could sleep!

Alisha (the girl that is living with us at the time) has the day off today! It's her first day off in a week, so we are all going to go to church, eat lunch together, and have a happy fun day the rest of the day.

We have a gang now. We get together every weekend at the Cocoa Tree. Last night we were there for hours. We ate chocolate, laughed, and had a great time. We also see lots of other people we know stopping in to get chocolate and hang out.

The Cocoa Tree moved to a different location. It's really cool. There was a cozy little room in the back and we took it over. People would come and peek their heads in the room to see it. They would see that there was really no place left to sit because we had every seat taken, so they would awkwardly back out and go to the other room. We stayed there until they were ready to lock up. It was so fun!

Friday, August 18, 2006

Stressful Day But Good

We started flying out of Nashville very early this morning. Then, when we had a lay over in Charlotte, I asked the flight attendant what gate to go to and she told me. When we tried to get on the flight, they said that we were on a different airline. They switched our airline in the middle of the flight! Plus, they had another flight going to the same place and leaving at about the same time on their own airline. Talk about confusing! They worked it out where we were able to fly out at the gate where we were because the other one had already left. However, our luggage came in on another airplane.

Then, we began driving from D.C. to Fredricksburg. It was supposed to be a 45 minute drive. We were in traffic for four hours!

We finally made it to the event 30 minutes before it began. Then, we realized that when they searched our bag, they broke some of our magic tricks. We were frantically trying to plug in our music and fix our tricks or replace them with other tricks. It was crazy!

We pulled it off though. It went really well. The audience was fun and people were saved by Jesus, so it was a success. Now, Tait is onstage and I'm backstage in the greenroom resting for the first time all day. I feel really good right now that we were able to make it in time barely and get our stuff together so quickly.

Flying to Virginia

We have an early flight into D.C. today. Then we do a show tonight. I love these fly shows lately. We leave today and fly back home tomorrow. Plus, the show is so fun! It's full of comedy and is very interactive. Brock uses volunteers for every trick. The results are usually very good. Pray that this is the case tonight.

We'll be close enough to Maryland. You know what that means? We'll probably eat some Maryland crabcakes! My favorite!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Bad Week Financially

I was having a really bad week financially this week. You know when everything goes wrong? Well, Monday, our gas company came and filled up the gas at our house. I was expecting this and barely have enough money to pay it. Then, our riding lawn mower is missing. One of our friends used it to mow our lawn and took it to go fix the flat tire. He said that he'd be back the next day. That was 9 weeks ago. I can only assume that it's stolen...not by our friend, but somebody probably took it while our friend had it in his possession and he's too scared to tell us. So, we payed for someone to mow our lawn again.

Anyway, with all of that added to our plate this month, we barely had enough to pay the bills, etc. Then, on Monday along with everything else, our air conditioning went out in our pick-up truck and the transmission light came on.

Lately, the Lord has been giving us the exact money we need before problems arise. For example, I got $213 extra and the next week had a bill for $213. It's been amazing. That's how it was for the gas at the house. I had the money for that and I could find the money for the lawn guy, but the transmission and air conditioning? Who knows how much that would cost? We took it to see about the air and luckily only a fuse was blown. It cost us $15 to get fixed. Then, we were planning on taking the truck in to get it looked at yesterday. We were praying that somehow maybe it was just a sensor and the light was the problem...not the transmission. We were going to pay the $60 or $70 to get it hooked up to that machine. However, the light went off yesterday before we took it in. I'm praying that it stays off!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Home

I've been enjoying my house this week. Normally, I get bored very easily at home and we go out all of the time. However, right now, we've been at home a lot. It's been fun lately. Just Brock and I are hanging out. Last night we watched a movie and played hide and seek. It was fun! Today, we have plans, so we'll be out most of the day.

Since we live out in the country, we stay in town whenever we are out. So, today we have a lunch meeting and we're going to some friends' house for dinner. Therefore, we will hang out in town all day. That's when we run errands or go to the coffee shop or whatever. I think that we have to shoot some footage for a DVD we're making today, so that might be what we focus on this afternoon.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Results From Spirit West Coast

Here is something that happened as a result of the festival we performed at last week:

On Sunday morning, about 1:30am the angels were having a little party, another soul was saved! Last week a new teen came to a youth event my son had at his church. Her family is unchurched and a family in the church brought her. The family asked the youth leader if she could possibly go with the youth group to SWC. He added her to the youths list of volunteers. She had an awesome time working with the other kids and seeing the concerts and speakers (the youth leader required the kids to go to all devotions and main stage speakers if they weren't scheduled to work at that time). They had to leave the festival on Saturday after late night because they had to be back for the morning service the next day. The last show they attended was Brock's illusionist show. On the way back to San Jose in the Expedition, the girl just blurted out (this is a very quiet, shy girl) "Boy, when that Brock guy was talking about giving your life to Jesus and not being afraid to stand up.......I was just too afraid! But I really wanted to do that!" The youth leader was floored and quietly asked her if that was something she really wanted to do. She said yes! He swerved to the side of the road and parked the car and the youth group gathered around her as he lead her to Christ. He said the presence of God was so strong in that vehical that he had Holy Ghost bumps running up and down his arms and back and every teen in that car could feel it. God had an appointment set for that young lady at SWC and we now have one more sister to add to our family!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Not Feeling Good

I'm not sick, but I don't feel very good. Do you know that feeling? My neck is very sore. It's been hurting since I woke up from a nap on the plane Thursday. I hope I didn't hurt anything very badly. Also, my sinuses are acting up. They haven't been bad in almost a year, yet here they are starting up again. Also, ever since I got a filling in my tooth two weeks ago, my jaw hurts every now and then. Needless to say, my head hurts!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Romans 8:28

"All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose."

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Weekend at Home

It's nice to have a weekend at home. Today, Brock is riding his motorcycle with a group of guys and I'm catching up on some housework. However, it's the housework I enjoy. I'm doing laundry and straightening up. I can straighten like the best of them. It's the deep cleaning that gets me in trouble.

Anyway, I'll probably wash sheets and towels and sit out on the porch reading my book until Brock gets home. The weather is much cooler, so it's nice on the porch now. It's a lazy Saturday and I like it!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Crazy Day at the Airport

The airport was crazy yesterday. We got lucky...we flew out of Indianapolis. Not only is it a smaller airport, but they handled themselves very well. When we got there, people were standing at the ticket counter advising that we check everything liquid. So, I began putting my make-up, suntan lotion, waters, etc. in pockets of the suitcases that we were checking. They even made me check my chapstick because they said that it was considered a gel.

Then, security was not that big of a deal, because they checked every carry-on bag before you actually got on your plane. They came to the gate. I thought that was very efficient since everyone at the security point are getting on planes at different times. It was very tense and people were extra nervous.

We were lucky. Our plane was only 10 minutes late getting to our gate coming in from NY, so we were only a few minutes late. People all over the country were not so lucky.

Even with all of the commotion, Brock checked a hula hoop. Remember I told you about the gifts the students gave Brock? Well, the hula hoop wouldn't fit in our bag, so Brock checked it. It was so funny! I didn't think she would actually go through with it, but she did. The lady at the counter wrapped a sticker around it that indicated that it needed to go to Nashville. It made it to Nashville too!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Show in Indiana

The show went really well tonight. We performed a brand new routine and it was great! Brock was actually perfecting it on the plane on the way here. He worked really hard on it, and it went over very well.

There were over 1,000 people there. It was a wonderful group.

At the end of the night, students kept coming up to Brock and handing him random things. They gave him a hula hoop, some baby shoes, and even some gas-x. He was given over 20 different items. It was hilarious!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Early Flight

We're waking up at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow to get on another plane to go do a show in Indiana. Normally, I cannot quite get accustomed to the Pacific Time Zone. This time, I went right into it. Now, I'm having trouble getting out of it. I'm going to bed late here and sleeping in rather late. That's so different for me. Tomorrow, we wake up early in Central Time Zone and go to Eastern Time Zone. I hope that I can nap on the plane because I'm going to be sleepy.

I'm excited about the show, though. I've been enjoying them so much lately. Pray that the show goes well and that people get saved.

Testimony from a School Assembly

There was a girl at Spirit West Coast that was from Georgia. She said that she was at a school assembly that we did there promoting the Freedom Experience a while back. She only went to the school assembly, but she could tell that Brock was a Christian. She said that everyone could tell that. Even though Brock never said anything about the Lord, they knew.

Also, it was an alternative school. I remember this school because I thought that they would be very unruly. It was quite the opposite. They seemed to really be attentive.

The girl said that it really made an impact on them. They talked about what Brock said for a long time after he left. It really encouraged them.

That's so exciting to hear! Even at a place where we cannot breathe the name of Jesus, He still gets around.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Sea Lions

We were sitting in a restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey and from our window seat, we could see lots of sea lions swimming around near us. One of them actually went onto the beach and went to sleep. The waitress who looked out that window very often said she had never seen one do that.

After we ate, we hurried over to see this sea lion up close. I took a lot of pictures of him and was able to get very close. Then, we made a video with Brock sitting on a rock beside the sea lion. I wasn't able to zoom in with my camera, so I got very close and the animal woke up and lunged at me yelling in some sort of sea lion fashion. He was probably saying, "Leave me alone! I'm trying to take a nap here!"

Then, he sorta warmed up to us. He acted as if he was posing for the camera when Brock was videoing it. Brock would say, "You are a supermodel...go! That's it...that's your best side." Just when he said that the sea lion would cock his head almost like posing...it was hilarious!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Spirit West Coast

We just completed our last show at Spirit West Coast. We've done 5 shows in less than 48 hours. It's been really good though. We've seen a lot of people...friends we work with from time to time. The shows were fun and people were saved. What more can you ask for?

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Monterey, CA

We are in Monterey, CA and it is cold! We have our heater on and wore hoodies all night. We are at a festival here. I woke up in Central Time yesterday at 6am and we performed in Pacific Time at 10:45pm. I was so tired last night!

The show went well though. We didn't have too much time because we had videos and announcements and a performance by Matthew West before us. Therefore, we didn't take the stage until almost 11:30. Brock did a couple of illusions and gave the quickest message and invitation ever. It was effective though.

Pray that our shows here tonight and tomorrow morning go really well and the Lord changes peoples' lives.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Candles on the Porch

So, I have candles everywhere in my house. On our front porch, we've placed an old lobster trap that we purchased in Maine in between our two rocking chairs. On top of the wooden box, I have...you guessed it...candles. Lately, I've been noticing that some candles have been turned over or moved to another spot. Last week, I saw that one was missing. Another one had fallen all the way off of the box. I saw some shavings from the missing purple candle on the floor. After following the trail of candle shavings, I found the purple candle off in the grass. It was completely gnawed up. I guess some sort of critter thinks that it's food because of the smell. I'll be looking for the culprit!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Party for Alisha

We have a girl that just moved in with us. I taught her in church when she was in 7th grade. Brock and I knew her all throughout her high school years because she grew up in the town where my parents live. A few years ago, she moved to Atlanta. Therefore, we saw her again on occasion. Now, she's living with us! It's cool how she keeps coming into our lives.

Last night, we had several people over for dinner to meet Alisha. Brock grilled on his cajun microwave and I cooked sides and peach cobbler and cookies. I was smart this time. I cooked the peach cobbler and the cookies the day before.

We invited our friend, Corey, because he is the social director for anything going on in town for singles. He didn't let us down. He told Alisha all of the Bible studies and organized events for people her age.

It was a great night. Brock was entertaining people with his stories of our latest adventures on the road and I was serving and hanging out. At one point, Alisha said this is a "Pam Baker" get together if I've ever seen one. Whenever I'm hosting, I definately see my mom coming out which is a good thing. She's taught me well.

We love sharing our house and food and lives with others. Isn't that what it's all about?

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Holding Our Hand

First of all, read Brock's blog www.brockgill.com/blog. Both of us knew that this house was going to foreclose, we just didn't want to voice it. Also, I was hoping that maybe the Lord would change His mind. However, neither of us were surprised when we got the phone call yesterday saying it's over and it's not good.

Brock preached a sermon on faith last Sunday morning. He said, "Sometimes the Lord doesn't step in and rescue you from your situation. He just holds you hand all the way thru it." That's exactly what is happenning right now with us. I don't feel like the Lord just dropped us. In fact, He is so close right now...holding our hands. We don't know what is going to happen next. We don't know what kind of state our finances will be in a few months or years, but we know one thing. The One that owns it all is holding our hands.

We've given our lives completely to Him. Therefore, He can choose what to do with it. A young man who did not know us or our situation told me this verse Sunday and said that he thinks that somehow it defines us..."'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you..." Acts 3:6.